Gabe Newell talks Steam Machines and console wars

Gabe Newell is confident that Steam machines can compete with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

Gabe Newell has told Develop Online that we can expect Steam Machines to outdo the current gaming consoles in hardware capability.

“At console price points, we’re going to have machines like Alienware’s, which are faster than today’s consoles,” says Newell.

This comes at an interesting time, with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One selling so well. Whether or not Steam Machines can truly compete with already established home console brands remains to be seen.

“We can knock down the barriers that keep PC gaming out of the living room, and then customers can decide what they want. So the way we organised it, in our thinking, is a sort of ‘good, better and best’ kind of thing,” says Newell.

With several different Steam Machines and producers behind them, Steam Machines do offer something that Microsoft and Sony cannot: varying price points and hardware.

The benefit to this is the fact that you can buy the Alienware Steam Machine for $449.00, but you have the choice of going for a higher end machine within the $1,000.00 range.

Will you be picking up a Steam Machine? Or do you think it is more practical to just build your own PC gaming setup? Let me know in the comments